Mafia and Public Transfers

[STONE]

Whilst we all know an abstract never does justice to an article - I did wonder at which end of 2102/04 this was written/published...


THE EFFECT OF MAFIA ON PUBLIC TRANSFERS
Date:   2012-04
By:   Guglielmo Barone (Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department, Branch of Bologna, Piazza Cavour 6, 40124, Bologna, Italy)
Gaia Narciso (Trinity College Dublin, CReAM and IIIS, Department of Economics, 3012 Arts Building, Dublin 2, Ireland)
URL:   http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp398&r=pub
This paper analyzes the impact of organized crime on the allocation of public transfers. We assemble an innovative data set on Italian mafia and public funds to businesses at municipality level and instrument current mafia activity with rainfall in the XIX century and geographical shifters of land productivity. We show that organized crime greatly increases the amount of public funds to businesses. Mafia is also found to lead to episodes of corruption in the public administration sector. Our results suggest that the design of geographically targeted aid policies should take into account local crime conditions.   
Keywords:   organized crime, public transfers, corruption
JEL:   H4

[John Short]

Is this A Freudian slip or just good forecasting?

Whilst we all know an abstract never does justice to an article - I did wonder at which end of 2102/04 this was written/published...


THE EFFECT OF MAFIA ON PUBLIC TRANSFERS
Date:   2012-04
By:   Guglielmo Barone (Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department, Branch of Bologna, Piazza Cavour 6, 40124, Bologna, Italy)
Gaia Narciso (Trinity College Dublin, CReAM and IIIS, Department of Economics, 3012 Arts Building, Dublin 2, Ireland)
URL:   http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp398&r=pub
This paper analyzes the impact of organized crime on the allocation of public transfers. We assemble an innovative data set on Italian mafia and public funds to businesses at municipality level and instrument current mafia activity with rainfall in the XIX century and geographical shifters of land productivity. We show that organized crime greatly increases the amount of public funds to businesses. Mafia is also found to lead to episodes of corruption in the public administration sector. Our results suggest that the design of geographically targeted aid policies should take into account local crime conditions.   
Keywords:   organized crime, public transfers, corruption
JEL:   H4


But then you have to marvel that one author writes from a square recalling a great early European unifier (in a centralisation project if ever there was one!) and one who was anxious about Ireland's future then as many Irish are now about Italy's
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924028140733#page/n123/mode/2up